


Tell Me Tales Of Heroes

by Sylphidine_Gallimaufry



Series: Six Guardians... Six! Not Five, Not Four! [4]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Children's Stories, Gen, Meta, ROTG Hope Week 2020, Self-Indulgent, Storytelling, Superheroes, life in quarantine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23614834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry/pseuds/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry
Summary: The Guardians find an intriguing way of sharing their centres with a world swept up in a pandemic.
Series: Six Guardians... Six! Not Five, Not Four! [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1503497
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	1. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Hope Week 2020, moderated by [jackrabbitweek on Tumblr](https://jackrabbitweek.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Part of my Guardian!Pitch AU.

Bunny sighed and stretched, stretched and sighed. The last basket of googies had been delivered to the last child’s doorstep, thanks to assistance by all the other Guardians and their associates, particularly Tooth’s fairies, Pitch’s mares, and North’s Yeti crew. 

This year had definitely been... different, with so many public events having been cancelled in light of The Great Virus that had spread worldwide. Egg hunts in the park were the last thing on the minds of most adults, but he just couldn’t let the kids down.

He had to hand it to Jack; the cheeky little icicle’s idea of borrowing the old May Day idea of hanging baskets on the door, knocking and running away was a solid one. It didn’t make people break quarantine, and it definitely brought more than a few smiles to faces, if that was any consolation.

Nevertheless, Bunny was feeling more than his usual post-Easter letdown, even thought all his beautiful googies had found homes for the year. And that was a dangerous state of mind for the Guardian of Hope to be in.

The kids _**AND**_ the adults needed something more this year. But he himself, the Herald of Spring, was fresh out of ideas.

Jack Frost, however, was usually _over_ -brimming with ideas, AND was the Guardian who had made it his mission to be **_actively_** involved with his believers..

Jack would know what to do.

Bunny shook himself vigorously, undrooped his ears in determination, and stamped his hindfoot fiercely, opening a tunnel to Burgess.

* * *

He popped up about ten yards from the brokendown bed in the middle of the woods on the outskirts of town, thinking he was more likely to find Jack here near Pitch’s portal entrance than at the winter sprite’s lake, and he was right. Jack was sitting on a lowhanging tree branch, one leg dangling, the other drawn up under him, He was shaping the chilly air into snow-shapes of rabbits. He’d guessed that Bunny would seek him out. The brat.

Bunny asked, with only a little of his usual sarcasm, “So where’s His Majesty the stick insect?” He knew that the Boogeyman, as Guardian of Caution, was working overtime these days by shaping bad dreams into ones where both adults and children could overcome obstacles, where it be a “bad guy” or a monster or something shapeless that would slink away and leave the dreamers feeling some degree of control.

Jack confirmed his suspicions. “I had Sandy hit him with some knockout sand so he’d actually get some rest. The fear spikes in the world out there are getting to be unbearable.”

“You’re telling me, Frostbite.” Bunny sat low on his haunches below Jack’s branch. “That’s why I’m here to jaw with you. You had a good idea to save Easter this year, and I’m wondering if you could help me think of something to... I dunno, keep feeding what hope and happiness can be found, even now.” He felt ridiculous putting it like that, especially to Jack Frost, but thankfully the Guardian of Fun showed absolutely no signs of laughing or gloating.

Jack replied, slowly and contemplatively, “I’ve been thinking about that, too. Everyone is feeling cut off from one another. I talked to Jamie a couple of days ago, and he said that there’s this messaging conference-y thing called Whoosh where people from all over the world can talk to each other in big groups. That’s how he’s taking his uni classes right now. There’s also people who are giving concerts, reading stories to kids..”

“That’s it!” Bunny interrupted, leaping up. “ Oh, Jackie, I’d tell you y’re brilliant, but I don’t want to swell that fat head of y’rs any more than it is.”

“At least mine’s not stuffed with fur, like yours, Cottontail.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

They both lapsed into silence, thinking their own thoughts, until Bunny said, “So how do we make this work? Even if the Bennett kids have the technology for us to borrow, only our believers would be able to see us. Anybody else tuning in would just see an empty room.”

“I have an idea about that, too. Remember the hospital visit we made last fall, when we tagged along with all those superhero cosplayers?”

“Yeah?”

Jack grinned. “There’s no reason _**WE**_ can’t dress up like that to show up on camera.”

And thus, for one memorable week, the Burgess Believers each got to play host to a Guardian, each Guardian dressed as one of the 1980s-era X-Men, reading stories aloud on Whoosh to families in quarantine.


	2. Memories

The Guardians did not have to look far for a way to acquire superhero costumes. It turned out that both Pippa Chandler and Monty Chandler were members of the local cosplay-for-charity group, which had been sidelined from doing appearances due to The Great Virus. They were thrilled to have a way to do good, even in quarantine.

Jamie set up a “BurgessBelievers” e-mail account to use for Whoosh, and somehow the Chandler siblings convinced the founders of the cosplay group to let them borrow six costumes [that were due to be retired or refurbished anyway] from their storage unit. 

And so Tooth found herself garbed in a mask and armor and a cloak in various shades of purples and greys, as she tried to perch comfortably in front of a webcam in Pippa’s bedroom, reading a children’s picture book aloud. Monty had pulled it from his own collection, saying it was one his grandma had brought him and his sister from England, and one they had read over and over again.

It turned out to be a tale about memories; about a little stuffed toy who had been left behind in a family move; a creature who did not know what he was, and who thought his name was “Nothing”, but who gradually remembered important things about himself, such as having a tail and whiskers, but more importantly he remembered being _loved,_ being _wanted_ by someone.

Tooth had a flash of guilt when she read aloud the passage about Nothing sitting on the fence, sitting and looking up at the moon.

But she went on bravely, trusting that Monty and Pippa wouldn’t love this book so much of it had an unhappy ending. And she was not mistaken, 

_“The cat jumped the fence at Number 97 and trotted in through the back door. He found an old man dozing in a chair surrounded by unpacked boxes._

_“ ‘That’s Grandpa.’ whispered the cat to Nothing, and dropped him on the old man’s lap._

_“Nothing looked up at Grandpa and saw a face he knew. The important thought inside his head popped open like a jack-in-the-box._

_“At last Nothing remembered who he was.”_

Tooth had only been half-looking at the screen, since she was concentrating on both reading aloud as well as holding the book at an angle so that her audience could see its illustrations. Thus she was taken aback, but not surprised, at all the faces in the screen who had been following along with the story, and that most of them had had both tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces.

Her eyes were wet and her lips were curved upwards as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Tooth is dressed as Psylocke in her body armour costume, before the Siege Perilous storyline, which also plays with memories in its own odd fashion.
> 
> [2] The book she is reading is called NOTHING by Mick Inkpen. Have tissues handy.


	3. Fun

Jamie had to help Jack keep adjusting the headpiece of his costume; it was top-weighted, and the winter sprite quite frankly could not see what purpose it served. But the three arches on the helmet were apparently what old fans remembered about this character. And the guy had a cool name, so Jack tolerated getting stuffed into too-snug black spandex, although he threw out one more complaint as he got ready to face the webcam. 

“Why couldn’t I have been Rogue or Longshot? I can carry off a jacket and a mullet wig like nobody’s business.”

“Because this is what we have, and I don’t feel like having bad dreams from Pitch about your calling everyone ‘honey chile’ in a lousy Southern accent. Quit squirming.” Jamie stood back to take one more look before handing Jack a well-worn blue paperback with light brown lettering on the spine; both Bennetts had cited this book as a fun book full of puns.

“Ready?”

“I was _born_ ready.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Jamie typed in the BurgessBelievers e-mail on his desktop, and pointed the screen with its webcam towards Jack. Immediately the image on the screen split into multiple windows as people joined the event on the Whoosh app. There was a nice mix of grammar school kids and their parents, and even some high school kids. 

Jack grinned at the camera and began reading passages from the middle of the novel, starting with a chapter entitled “It’s All In How You Look At Things”.

_“For instance," said the boy again, "if Christmas trees were people and people were Christmas trees, we'd all be chopped down, put up in the living room, and covered in tinsel, while the trees opened our presents."_

_"What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo._

_"Nothing at all," he answered, "but it's an interesting possibility, don't you think?”  
_

_He said proudly. "I'm Alec Bings; I see through things. I can see whatever is inside, behind, around, covered by, or subsequent to anything else. In fact, the only thing I can't see is whatever happens to be right in front of my nose."_

Jack had a sneaking suspicion he would have gotten along very well with a boy who spent most of the time in the air. 

He kept on with the reading with gusto, enjoying the wordplay immensely. The applause he got when he finished the chapter, as well as the smiles on the faces he could see on the screen, confirmed that his audience enjoyed it too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Jack is dressed as Havok, much as he appeared in the Chris Claremont era.
> 
> [2] The book Jack is reading from is THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster, one of my three “desert island books”.


	4. Dreams

“You really take this dress-up stuff seriously, don’t you, mate?” asked Bunny when he saw Pitch emerge from the shadows in Cupcake’s room, where they were doing the next storytelling session.

Unlike the other Guardians who had adjusted the borrowed costumes to fit their looks, Pitch had adjusted his looks to fit the costume.

The Boogeyman now sported indigo skin, disheveled hair of midnight black, yellow eyes, pointed ears, two-toed feet, three-fingered hands, and a prehensile tail, and was dressed in a skintight ensemble of scarlet, black, and white.

“I may be portraying a circus performer,” replied the Guardian of Caution, “but that does _ **not**_ mean I have to look like a clown.”

The lagomorph backpedaled, both physically _and_ verbally. “No insult intended, Pitch! You actually make that outfit work. That’s a great look for you.”

“Isn’t it, though,” leered Jack from his seat on the windowsill.

“Down, boy.” Pitch smoothed back his hair. “Remember that this is for the children, and I owe it to them to be a believable superhero.” He made a face at the book he held in his now-differently-dexterous hands. “I’m not sure about this reading choice, though. I’m just waiting for someone to imitate this and start throwing mirrors at the sky...”

“Stop overthinking and start reading already, FuzzyElf,” interrupted Cupcake, whose favourite book this was, and who had dug out a plush figure who looked remarkably like a chibi version of the character Pitch now resembled. Her bedroom remained a jumble of childhood things and less-childish ambitions and dreams for the future... her unicorn posters shared wall space with a number of hand-designed bumper stickers reading “Lucinda Leslie For President 2036 - LET’S GET’EM!” 

She handed him the toy and added, “You can always send the kids a warning nightmare if they do anything too reckless.”

“That’s true.” The Boogeyman stuck the plushie with its velcro’d hands onto his shoulder, faced the cameras, and did a credible gymnast’s leap so that he was perching crouched on the edge of Cupcake’s desk. He held the book out for the audience to see, and smoothly began to read a tale that had all the qualities of the best of dreams.

_That evening when the first star began to twinkle in the sky, the Unicorn awakened. Quickly she looked up at the sky to find the moon so she could go and stand in its light. But there was no moon._

_She found the moon at last, but not in the sky. It was trapped between two hills._

_“Moon, what are you doing there?” she asked._

_“Late in the night when I was setting, I did not watch where I was going and these two hills caught me,” answered the poor moon._

Pitch went on reading in a faintly-accented voice, really getting into the part of his character, as the Unicorn went first to her friend the Griffin for aid, and finally to visit the Alchemist, who had the answer to the problem. The beautiful illustrations seemed to be just as big a draw for his audience as the story itself, and he made sure he gave everyone logged in on Whoosh enough time to see them.

When the book was done, the Boogeyman took a bow and disappeared into the shadows, making it appear to his audience that he’d vanished in a puff of black smoke. They gave a startled but thoroughly pleased round of applause.

In the other room, Bunny put his head in his hands. Trust the Nightmare King to be a drama diva and go off-script.

What was he going to have to deal with when North and Sandy took their turns?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Pitch is dressed as Nightcrawler from the Chris Claremont era of the X-Men, created by Dave Cockrum.
> 
> [2] The picture book Pitch reads aloud, with no real malice intended towards his old friend The Man In The Moon, is by Tomie dePaola called THE UNICORN AND THE MOON, whose paintings strongly resemble the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters in New York.


	5. Wonder

"I look like baking potato," complained North as he viewed himself in the mirror in Pippa's room. He sighed mightily and added, "I _feel_ like baking potato." 

Pippa replied, as she tried in vain to adjust the armguards over North’s massive forearms, “I’m sorry, this was the only costume that would fit anyone as big... I mean, as tall as you.”

North softened at her attempt to mollify him. “You can say ‘fat’, родная.* I will not take offense. Santa Claus is _supposed_ to have exuberant figure.” He turned to look at himself over his shoulder, the aluminum foil layers of his outfit making a rustling noise. “Well, _**this**_ hero is at least handsome Russian, yes?”

“Definitely handsome Russian, yes. And kind, and sweet, even though he’s a powerhouse. The kids will love you.”

She made one last adjustment and stretched up on her tiptoes to give North a peck on his masked cheek, careful not to dislodge the padded fabric hiding his beard. “Go forth and read, мой друг**.”

Pleased at her flattery, but pained by her accent, North went to sit on the chair in front of the webcam and began to read from a gloriously illustrated picture book.

* * *

_The ship slowed to a stop. Reaching over the side, the old man hoisted up a large golden star that had been hanging from the rail. Across it was the name Kate._

_Holding the star out over the side of the ship, the Sandman asked, “Does that look straight, Joey?”_

_“Yes, I think so.”  
_

_The Sandman closed his eyes and began to speak:_

##  _“Through stardust and comets and wind and bad weather, may this star that I hang in the sky stay forever!”_

_He pulled his hands away. The star floated in place._

* * *

“Much in this book seems... familiar somehow,” mused North after they’d signed off of Whoosh.

“Does anyone really have a monopoly on wonder?” answered Pippa. “That Sandman sounds like he’s a wizard, and has a workshop just like yours, and that he’s as fussy about his schedule as Tooth is about hers, and sometimes can be as grumpy as Bunny...”

The big Cossack smiled. “You are right, of course. There is always need for more magic, and magic-makers, in this world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] * Russian term meaning “dear” ** Russian phrase “my friend”.
> 
> [2] North is dressed as Colossus from the X-Men, whose costume has had the fewest changes, in my opinion, over the course of the character’s history.
> 
> [3] The book North reads aloud is SHIP OF DREAMS by Dean Morrissey, with painted illustrations. Its themes strongly parallel those of William Joyce’s, and I have been fortunate enough to view Mr. Morrissey’s original paintings in person before they were turned into this book.


	6. Light

The Guardians and the Burgess Believers were, quite frankly, stumped when it came time to plan Sandy’s turn on Whoosh. However was their voiceless compatriot going to read a story out loud in front of an audience?

It was the Belazair brothers who came up with the brilliant solution... have Sandy present a nearly-wordless book, with Caleb and Claude in the background providing the one [repeated] phrase of dialogue, punctuated by an instrumental soundtrack so that Sandy could send up his symbols in a realistically orchestrated way.

Sandy’s choice of costume, however, had Bunny in a state of shock, Pitch giving a knowing smirk, and the rest of the Guardians bemused, but rolling with it, in a manner of speaking.

The little dreamweaver had donned a white satin jumpsuit with bellbottom flares; it boasted a neckline slashed to where the navel would have been on any human. Around his neck he wore a disco ball as a pendant; on his feet he wore rhinestone-studded roller skates; and his head was crowned with a luxuriant honey-golden blonde wig that curled and frothed and reached to the backs of his knees.

Jack patted Sandy on the shoulder and said, “My man, you are something other than else, as the groovy people say.”

Sandy blew a silent raspberry at him as he floated up to perch on a stack of boxes as a seat, so that he could be seen in all his glory on everyone’s screens. North muttered something that sounded like “Mussorgsky!” under his breath. Claude handed Sandy his picture book, Caleb turned on the webcam and the boombox, and then both twins flopped crosslegged onto the floor. 

The strains of Apollo 100′s “Mad Mountain King” played as Sandy showed their audience the pictures of a mouse in a hot-air balloon scouting an idyllic countryside with a village below, when suddenly an ominous shadow can be seen. The mouse shouts aloft to a bicyclist, who shouts to other mice wandering in the streets and parks, who pass along the shouted message to everyone they meet. The ominous shadow gets closer and closer, and the crowd of mice falls silent...

...and the music on the boombox changed to Apollo 100′s “Joy”, as the shadow turns out to be a giant but very welcome emissary to the village, harnessed to a wagon bearing an enormous wheel of cheese. The happy mice pamper their feline visitor with milk before he must journey on to the next village.

In time to the electronic strains of the 1970s music, both scary and jubilant, Sandy sent up sand-symbols of the mice and the cat, effectively channeling the superhero he was portraying, since she had the power of manipulating sound into light. His imagery was perfectly in tune with the illustrations on the page, and the Guardians and the twins could hear and see their audience’s gasps and giggles of delight.

When the lightshow was over, Sandy bowed from the waist, garnering the largest round of applause yet.

Tooth whispered to Bunny, “How much do you want to bet that we’re going to have a hard time getting him to give that outfit back?”

Bunny buried his face in his paws.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Sandy is costumed as the original appearance of Dazzler, as designed by John Romita Jr.
> 
> [2] The book Sandy presents is HERE COMES THE CAT!, a joint creation by Vladimir Vagin and Frank Asch.


	7. Hope, Reprised

“I’m not wearing THAT, an’ that’s final.”

“Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease,” begged Sophie in her most wheedling tone, looking up at her art instructor with big wide eyes. At age twelve, she was starting to get some of the leggy look that Jamie had already gone through, but she was still shorter than the Easter Bunny by quite a bit.

“No.”

“But it would be so funny, with your Australian accent, playing somebody who’s played by an Australian...”

“Which makes no sense to me, sheila. Why they picked an Australian to do a Canadian...”

“You’re trying to change the subject, Bunny.”

“And you’re not going to win, miss, so stop trying. I’m not wearing it. B’sides, it’s too small.”

Sophie looked crestfallen, but had to admit that Bunny was right. The criss-crossed armour that she’d thought looked like Bunny’s own bandoliers was definitely meant for someone under five-foot-nine in height, and neither of the gloves with the claws would fit over Bunny’s paws.

“What do we do?” she asked. “Pippa can’t get any other costumes from storage, and you’ve GOT to have a costume for you to show up on camera.”

Bunny scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Well, it’s not an X-Men costume, but I do have something that might do. I’ll be back in a few.”

The Guardian of Hope was as good as his word; in less than ten minutes he had returned, wearing a long green robe with a high scarlet collar and double-breasted buttons up the front, an apron-draped scarlet sash with sporrans around his waist, and an amusing pair of egg-shaped tinted spectacles perched on his nose.

Sophie clapped her hands. “I don’t know who you’re supposed to be, but oh, you look super, Bunny.” 

“Never you mind. Let’s get this show rolling. It’s time to remind ‘em all that Spring always returns.”

She handed him the classic book that had inspired her mother to give her the middle name of Lilias, and called Jamie to get the Whoosh channel open.

* * *

_On that first morning when the sky was blue again Mary wakened very early. The sun was pouring in slanting rays through the blinds and there was something so joyous in the sight of it that she jumped out of bed and ran to the window. She drew up the blinds and opened the window itself and a great waft of fresh, scented air blew in upon her. The moor was blue and the whole world looked as if something Magic had happened to it. There were tender little fluting sounds here and there and everywhere, as if scores of birds were beginning to tune up for a concert. Mary put her hand out of the window and held it in the sun._

_“It’s warm—warm!” she said. “It will make the green points push up and up and up, and it will make the bulbs and roots work and struggle with all their might under the earth.”_

_She kneeled down and leaned out of the window as far as she could, breathing big breaths and sniffing the air until she laughed because she remembered what Dickon’s mother had said about the end of his nose quivering like a rabbit’s._

_“It must be very early,” she said. “The little clouds are all pink and I’ve never seen the sky look like this. No one is up. I don’t even hear the stable boys.”_

_A sudden thought made her scramble to her feet._

_“I can’t wait! I am going to see the garden!”_

_She had learned to dress herself by this time and she put on her clothes in five minutes. She knew a small side door which she could unbolt herself and she flew downstairs in her stocking feet and put on her shoes in the hall. She unchained and unbolted and unlocked and when the door was open she sprang across the step with one bound, and there she was standing on the grass, which seemed to have turned green, and with the sun pouring down on her and warm sweet wafts about her and the fluting and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree. She clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the sky and it was so blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with springtime light that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself and knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it. She ran around the shrubs and paths towards the secret garden._

_“It is all different already,” she said. “The grass is greener and things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and green buds of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure Dickon will come.”_

_The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which bordered the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting and pushing out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually here and there glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses. Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking up, but now she missed nothing._

_When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy, she was startled by a curious loud sound. It was the caw—caw of a crow and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed. She had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a little nervous, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped away across the garden. She hoped he was not going to stay inside and she pushed the door open wondering if he would. When she got fairly into the garden she saw that he probably did intend to stay because he had alighted on a dwarf apple-tree and under the apple-tree was lying a little reddish animal with a Bushy tail, and both of them were watching the stooping body and rust-red head of Dickon, who was kneeling on the grass working hard._

* * *

Bunny had gotten so involved in reading aloud this tale of renewal that he had gotten nearly to the end of the chapter titled “Nest Building” before he realized that he and Sophie were no longer alone in the room. One by one, Sandy, Tooth, Pitch, North and Jack had managed to appear without him noticing, all giving him smiles. 

His audience on the screen all seemed to be smiling, too. 

He smiled himself, his eyes wet behind his spectacles, and finished off his reading with the lines, _“How could I have stayed abed! Th’ world’s all fair begun again this mornin’, it has. An’ it’s workin’ an’ hummin’ an’ scratchin’ an’ pipin’ an’ nest-buildin’ an’ breathin’ out scents, till you’ve got to be out on it ’stead o’ lyin’ on your back. When th’ sun did jump up, th’ moor went mad for joy, an’ I was in the midst of th’ heather, an’ I run like mad myself, shoutin’ an’ singin’. An’ I come straight here. I couldn’t have stayed away. Why, th’ garden was lyin’ here waitin’!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> I have various headcanons for the surnames of the Burgess Believers, which I try to keep consistent throughout all my RotG fanfiction.
> 
> Obviously, we already know that Jamie and Sophie are Bennetts.
> 
> I've headcanoned that Pippa and Monty are siblings, and their last name is Chandler.
> 
> Cupcake's given name is Lucinda Leslie.
> 
> The twins are Caleb and Claude Belazair.


End file.
